2 Samuel 7:1-16
Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in?I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
One of the nice things about the strangeness of this schedule for the church here is that we get to have the the last prediction of Jesus Christ birth, which happens on the fourth Sunday in Advent. Almost immediately, right before we celebrate it actually happening. See, that's what's going on this morning. We're in the Advent season. And we get the reading of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary. And he announces the good news to her. And she goes, Great, that sounds awesome. Which is kind of funny, because if an angel came to me in that position, I'd have some questions. We have a similar prediction. That is the prediction of what would happen in there with the story of David. Our Old Testament reading has the beginning of the covenant with David God's promised to him that he would establish for him a house and a kingdom that lasts forever. But it's kind of a weird story. Because it begins with a strange thing. David has an idea. Let's see what that idea is. So goes. Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord God had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the Lord of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan, Nathan said to the king, go, do all that in your heart for the Lord is with you. So this beginning verse helps us gives us some context. David, who had been made king of Israel prior to this had been fighting wars all the time, because that's what kings did in those days. He had to conquer cities, he had to defend Israel from their enemies. And in fact, the city he was living in now Jerusalem was a city that he himself had to take and make his own, make the capital city of the nation of Israel. So he had finally found rest, there was no war. And he had finally built himself a house in his capital city. And he looks around and he says, Wait a second. We've got to city, we're not wandering anymore. And I built myself a house. But God is living in a tent. This seems weird. Now, there are two reasons. God, David might have wanted to build a permanent temple for God in his city. One of those reasons was a good old political reason. David was a king. And he wanted the people to listen to him. Which meant if he built a temple for God that could not move. And he put it in his capital city, the city that he had newly conquered, it would mean that everybody in all the nation of Israel would have to come to his city to worship. And they would have to do that for all the required festivals. Because the tabernacle it moved around, it was wherever the priests decided to place it. So if they had to come to Jerusalem, they would be there for for the Passover, for Pentecost for the day of atonement for tabernacles, five times a year, everyone in Israel would travel to his city. And David thought, well, this is a good way to secure my power, and to show everyone that God had chosen him. But I think there's another important reason there to not just the political. David simply wanted to honor God. And I think that's what is, is hidden there. When he says, See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. David is saying, I've got this really cool house, and it's pretty amazing. But God's in this funky old tent. He deserves more than that. And it's a holy desire, a desire to do something for God, to say, God, I want to honor you, I want to serve you, I want to take care of you. And I think every Christian can have can associate themselves with that desire, right? When we think about our Savior, our God, we often think to ourselves, God, you've done so much for me, You sent Your Son to die for me, you you've chosen me forgiven my sins, I want to serve you. I want to do something for you. And anyone who has faith has that desire, I think it is simply springs from the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we want. So the Nathan the prophet turns to David and says, What a great idea, go for it. Except God comes to Nathan in the middle of the night with a different word. Here's what he says, go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? Have I not lived? I have. Have I not lived in a house since the day I brought my people up from Israel from Egypt to this day. But I have been moving about in a tense for my dwelling in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? God almost sounds offended here. At least that's how I read it. He goes, Well, wait a second. You I get that you want to serve me? But why this way? Did I ask anybody to build me a house? Did I tell you, you know, this tent, it's no good. I really need something super impressive. Really. When God chose to be with his people, he did command something. He said, Build me a tent. We'll call it the tabernacle. And this is where my presence will be. When the people of Israel move, I will move with them. When they walk, I will lead the way. When they go out to fight, the Ark of the Covenant will often go out in front. I will travel with my people. He set up a whole system where there would be the ark and the candelabras. And there's a table for bread and there's an incense for altar and a place to sacrifice and a place to burn the offerings. But he never commanded a place built out of wood, or stone, or anything that's permanent. Was David being presumptuous? Was David trying to tell God what he needed? Rather than simply listening to what God said? Perhaps his desire to do something for God was good. But the action was misplaced. Because God didn't need a temple. Maybe God didn't even want a temple at this point. David thought he was doing something for God, but God never asked him to do it. You see the timber tabernacle. And later when Solomon built the temple, was never designed to be a place that was for God. Did God need a place to live? Of course not. He dwells in all things. Did he need an ark of the covenant for himself? Of course not. The Ark of the Covenant was a sign of God's promise to his people. Not something that made him feel good. Did he need the gold and the offerings that people brought to the temple or to the tabernacle? No. This is Psalms say that the cattle on 1000 hills are his. All the earth is gone. Even the tabernacle wasn't there because God needed their worship and prayers. The tabernacle was so that God could serve His people
so that God could live amongst his covenant people and offer them His grace, it was a place where they could come and offer up their prayers and see a sign of His presence among a place where they could do their sacraments of sacrifice, and receive the forgiveness of sin. Where God could remind them that He is their God and he chose the tabernacle wasn't for God. It was for the people.
And David, well, his desire to honor God meant that he was making up something that maybe God didn't command. And I think sometimes, the Christians good and holy desire to serve God can turn us away from doing what God actually commands, and to create things that we do for God. Right? Because you ask yourself, when we put money in the offering plate, is it because God needs it? Does God say, Ah, if only I could buy a car. I need Christians to put that envelope in that offering. Of course, God doesn't need our money, or our stuff. Does God say, Ah, I just don't have the almighty power. unless everybody is praying to me. I need to build up my power battery by your prayers. No, of course not. He doesn't need anything from us. He doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our prayers. He doesn't need buildings for us to worship in. He doesn't need anything at all from us. What he wants is to give us His grace. This misunderstanding about serving God leads to all sorts of things. The clearest historical examples are things like the indulgences you could receive for doing devotional work back in the days of the Reformation, when they would come up with a whole long list of things that you could do, that might be good devotional practices. But the church said these things merit, some sort of gift of grace. Like if you do these things for God, God will return a gift to you. And today, we Christians, sometimes we create things like that ourselves. We say to ourselves, the only good work that a human being can do is volunteering in the church. Because that's where real service is. We say to ourselves, I have to go across the world to serve someone because I need to be doing mission work. Because that's what God demands. And we think to ourselves, I have to do something for God. But that's not how it worked with David. That's not how it works. Today. Christianity isn't about doing something for God. It's about God doing something for us. Let's take a look at the text. God says in verse eight. Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant, David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people, Israel, and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and we'll plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people, Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. And moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So what God is doing here is he's saying, first of all, wait, wait, you're gonna build me a house? No. I'm gonna build you a house. He says to David, your response to serve is holy. But that's not how it works. I am the one who gives. I am the one who serves. I'm going to build you a house that will last forever. When Nathan, the Prophet gave this, this promise to King David, it might have seemed like a bit of an exaggeration, right? Who's going to be able to be on a throne forever? David certainly wasn't. Even his son Solomon didn't live forever. Now, his son had a son, and those sons were on the line of the house of Judah all the way as long as it was a nation. But none of them were on a throne forever. But we know that behind the words of Nathan, the Prophet was a promise even greater than what David could have imagined. That there actually wouldn't be a son, who would actually be on a throne for all time. And we heard about that promise, in our gospel reading, when an angel came to Mary and said, You're going to have a son, and he will be on the throne of his father, David and his kingdom will last forever. God made a promise to David, that there would be a king for his people for all time. And then he sent his son Jesus Christ, to die on a cross and rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, where he is now seated on that very throne, at the right hand of God reigning over his church, and over all of creation for all time. God did it. He built David a house that lasts forever, and a kingdom that never ends. But not as a reward. He did it, because he chose David and his family, to serve. Listen to why David was chosen as king. He wasn't chosen because he would be awesome or because he thought David was super cool. He was chosen to be king to do something. He says, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be my be Prince over my people, Israel. And I have been wherever you cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name like the great ones of the earth. And I will point a place for my people Israel, and we'll plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly. God chose David, not because he wanted David to be happy. But because a king has a responsibility to protect his people. David, the king was supposed to protect them from violent men, use his armies to defend the nation of Israel. His service to God was not building a temple. But serving God's people. That's what God sends us to do. Our desire to serve God is good and holy. But it doesn't mean that we're actually doing anything for God. God doesn't need our offerings. God doesn't need our volunteer time. God doesn't need us to go to work, or feed children. Other people do, right? We offer our offerings here, because the ministry needs to happen. And without the ministry, you cannot hear the Word of God. You cannot hear the promises of Jesus Christ who died and rose for you. That's why we get we don't go to work because God commands it. We go to work because people need to eat. Right? Especially parents raising the young children, they go to work because there are hungry mouths at home. And without some job, well, they're gonna stay hungry. We take care of people, not because God commands it, but because people need it. And what that means is that we don't have to make up Our service to God. We don't have to, to create some sort of task that looks good and holy to God. All we have to do is look around us and see the need. And do it. I mean, there is no questioning, right? You don't have to wonder like, What does God need, I have to dive into the Bible to figure it out. Now, there is plenty of need around you.
Plenty of need in our congregation, plenty of need in your families, in our communities. Serving God means serving them. Because God is the one who serves us, so he doesn't come to extract from us worship and prayers and praises and offerings. God is God who served. That's why he sent the tabernacle. That's why he chose David to be king. And it's why he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for because God serves us. Our service to Him is simply to do the same for the people around us to see the need and to do it. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai